Doylestown man writes obscenity on fine-payment cheque

[Saddle Bronc 124]

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113...08-1469778.html

Police accept apology for vulgar check

By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC

The Intelligencer

The penalty for a man who wrote a profanity on the check he used to pay a parking ticket: an apology letter and $5 for the original fine.

David Binner will also have to pay his attorney’s fees and court costs.

But the penalty could have been worse — if Doylestown police hadn’t withdrawn the disorderly conduct charge against the 45-year-old Doylestown man. He could have paid an extra $25 and spent more time in court.

The charge was filed against Binner after he sent a $5 check to Doylestown police that said “Go f*** yourself” in the memo line. The check was supposed to pay for a fine Binner received Nov. 17 for being parked at an expired meter.

Doylestown Police Chief James Donnelly said the comment was obscene, which also made it disorderly conduct.

“You can’t express your displeasure in vulgar terms,” he said, noting that civilian employees especially should not have to be subjected to profane or obscene language.

Donnelly said police decided to withdraw the charges against Binner on Friday because “he was contrite enough to offer an apology, and I think that satisfies the people who were insulted by it, which were the clerks.”

Binner’s letter, which police accepted before his 1:30 p.m. hearing on Friday, offers apologies to anyone offended by his comment.

“This is not my normal nature and admittedly was a temporary lapse of judgement on my part, vented in a moment of frustration,” he wrote.

Binner declined to be interviewed.

But his attorney, Keith Williams, said Binner would have won the case if police hadn’t withdrawn the charges.

Williams said there was a similar case elsewhere in Pennsylvania where a judge ruled that use of the F-word does not amount to disorderly conduct.

“The F-word isn’t what it used to be,” he said. “It doesn’t have a sexual connotation anymore.”

Williams explained: The word has to have a sexual connotation to be considered obscene, and it needs to be obscene to be considered disorderly conduct.

Still, the attorney said, Binner feels bad about what he did and will pay the $5 fine.

Eh, it looks to me he sent in a cheque for the amount of the fine (with the obscenity in memo line)--and it also looks like he was by law free to express his opinion (which he did); ergo, Doylestown really had no valid reason to make a court case out of it.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Nevermind, the topic was already posted -- http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=105012

[Jesse and Hema 2]

Nevermind, the topic was already posted -- http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=105012

You probably noticed that, and utter'ed, "F***!!"